The Making of Inception
This video is a really good commentary on the importance of process. The path to the finished result.
It didn't start with this grand idea and a bunch of welding. There were detailed drawings and sketches and thought behind each component of this huge movies.
So many tweaks. So many of pages full of thought cobbeled together in a very technically impressive film.
You spec work isn't going to have a multi million dollar budget. Probably not a multi hundred dollar budget but you still need to plan. You still need to walk through a lot of the steps in the video. You should be albe to trace back along the path from frist idea to finished result.
Don't go directly to the computer and start playing around with effects. That stuff is secondary.
Step away from the keyboard.
Worry about the basic components, the why, then expand out from there.
Don't put the fist line you write on the ad. That line is not nearly good enough.
Write 10 more. The 100 more and you'll see how much more clear your thoughts become.
You're not making a feature film but you should put that same level of craft and time in to your ad.
Because work like that has soul. And might even help you get a job one day.
Now go off and incept that thought into your brain.